Janelle Elyse Kihlstrom

The Magdalene*

A pretty kettle of fish, it all turned out to be,

though what she wanted was something quite other

than that same old George and Gracie vaudeville

shtick.  On her own, she took it on the road

again, the solo act, but it never did float. 

What they were looking for was girls with wider

range (blonde to brunette) or someone to do the books

and mend the netting.  In the South of France, they

found her quaint (those Bedouin robes, brown

fisherwoman's hands) but they dressed the swarthy

servant girl in grapes and fronds, billed her

a prodigy.  So Mary went home again, to Galilee,

opened up her stall, the family trade, stood day

by day with the boys along the wharf, hawking her

honest merchandise, never sporting a blush at their

double entendres.  But she hated those tuna jokes.

*There is a place today called Magdala, 120 miles north of Jerusalem on the shores of the Sea of Galilee... Its full name is Magdala Tarichaea.  Magdala seems to mean tower, and Tarichaea means salted fish... If the name of the town was "Tower of Salted Fish," it's no surprise that its main business was fishing. 

(from BBC.co.uk)

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